Mar 27, 2010

Back in the very late 90s I struck a trade(one of the very few I've ever done) with the owner of shotdownstars records. He wanted some LP from me, I think it was the Promise Ring or something, and I wanted this 7" he had just released. The 7" was called The Dynamite Rose Compilation. It had some really great bands on it, Milhouse, atom and his package, good clean fun, and my favorite band of all time Silent Majority. Not only that, but the SM song(cover of Cranberries - Salvation) wasn't released on any other record. It was a MUST have. So back to the trade....He was getting what I believe was a Promise Ring 12" and I was getting all 3 colors of the comp(black, blue, and red) plus the Test Press. Now at the time, collecting test presses wasn't exactly a huge deal. I got them when I could, but it wasn't like the most sought after variation of the record. So I figured, 3 variants plus a test press, easy deal for me and him. He put the 7 out, so 4 records was no skin off his nose, and whatever I was giving him didn't compare to locking up every SM record plus a test. The deal went down quick and smooth.

For a long time after that the test really didn't mean much. It was probably not until say 2004, when I decided to see if I could collect every long Island record, did it really hit me that I had a test press of a record with a silent majority song on it. It became one of my most prized possessions. It was up there with my Inside My Funeral test press, and my H2O s/t on grey marble which is the first 12" I ever bought. Records that I would never part with. It also kind of became a joke because people would ask me if I had any SM test presses. Cause really I have so many damn LI records it's absurd. Including SO many LI test presses. Blood Red, both Capital LPs, Heads vs Breakers, Inside, every Dead Broke Records release, Backup Plan, Milhouse, Sons of Abraham, I could go on forever. But I never could get my hands on a SM test press. And considering they're my favorite band, and I have an SM tattoo that goes from the knee down, annnddd I'm the biggest LI collector on the planet, you'd think I'd have one if not all. But I didn't. All I had was the Dynamite Rose comp test, and it meant everything to me.

Soooooo let's fast forward to about 6 months ago. My good friend Brian Norrby came to my place in Manorville to hang for a bit and take a look at my records. He hadn't seen them in a while and 2009 was an insane year for vinyl. The stuff I got last year WOW, just ridiculous. So we're there with my brother Tom, and I'm pulling out all the monsters and we're reminiscing and having a great old time. Then he asks the question, "Do you have any Silent Majority Test Presses?" and I give him my customary, "welllll sort of. I have the dynamite rose comp test." So I pulled out the 4 record pack and handed him the color variants first. He was saying that he didn't even realize it came in 3 colors. Then I go to hand him the test press and as I'm pulling it out of the paper sleeve I catch a glimpse of the martix. It says WHR-002. Now for a second I pause and think to myself, "I must have grabbed the wrong test press." But then I think, "But I couldn't have, I packed them all together. This is the one I got from SDS recs. But this says WHR-002. Witching Hour Records #2?" I started to freak a little bit. I grabbed my laptop, did about a seconds worth of research and realized that for 10 years I didn't have the Dynamite Rose comp test, I had the Witching Hour Records - Between a Rock and a Hard Place test press. This is the one with Cave In - Pivotal on it. So I went right over to the turntable and dropped it on there. Boom, Cave In ripping Pivotal like a son of a bitch. Great song by the way. So basically my SM world crumbled. I was back to square one. For 10 years I thought I had an SM test, when in reality, I had little more than one of the most influential metal hardcore bands crowning achievement song on test press.....god fucking damnit, I WANT A SILENT MAJORITY TEST PRESS!

Sooooo let's fast forward again to about 3 days ago when Brian Meehan(guitarist for Milhouse and KYI) posted a thread on the local LIHC board about some stuff he had on ebay. We got to talking about my blog and how I have Milhouse tests that he hasn't even seen before ahah and I asked him if he had any TPs he was looking to dispose of. He said he had some Rocket from the Crypt tests that he was going to be buried with, but other than that, nothing. Well I went back to working on Clinton Park, and then the next day I get a private message that says:

ok found a test press that i am fairly certain no one has.it's a compilation called the dynamite rosehere is the track listing

side DYNAMITE -

good clean fun - you're only punk oncemilhouse - post cards from a concentration campfilmshow - everything dies with time

AHHHHHHHHH WHAT?! You're offering me the Dynamite Rose comp test? So basically within about millisecond, he had a bunch of cash, and my record was in the mail.

Once I got the record, it all started to make sense to me. See this record was made for the guests of a wedding. A wedding for a guy named Timothy Towslee and a girl named Shoshana Francis. See the initials and date on the special test cover? Well when I did this deal, it was before the wedding. Those covers weren't made yet. The guy just had the test presses. So check what the Witching Hour Records comp test looks like:

Big hole and generic test press label. The WHR label is black and the DRC one is red, but it's still easy to screw up. And he did. He sent me the wrong one. And for 10 years I didn't know it.

Each test press is numbered as well. Guess what number I got?

oh yeah I got #10.

Needless to say, Brian Meehan is my new bff. But not because of this record....

Mar 19, 2010

One of the most difficult records to get a hold of is the Indecision - Release the Cure - Sea Foam Green, on the French label Overcome Records. I really have no idea how many of these they made, but I'm sure it's less than 250.

It's looks a lot different than the mint green version release by MIA.

As I mentioned a few months back I've managed to gather up a few more records for my Indecision/MPB collection. Still a ways to go. But I put it together again and snapped a pic.

Mar 12, 2010

I'm going to do something I normally try and avoid, I'm going to promoteLimited Pressing. I don't know, I try and make this blog a release for me.Take a picture or a video and talk about a record. It helps me forget aboutthe bullshit I normally go through at work. It's hard to explain, but Ialways viewed work as work, my blog as my personal release, and LP assomewhere in the middle. Sure it's a business and it's work, but it involveswhat I love. So it falls in the middle. Unfortunately work lately hasstarted to become worse than just work. It's become bleak, dreary, and justplain tiresome. So now I feel like LP is on the personal release side. Solet's discuss LP for a post....

For a long time I've had this vision of a complete social/selling entitythat just housed collectors and lovers of punk, hardcore, indie, and metal.This complete social/selling site was made a reality about a week ago whenwe released Stores for sale. Stores that don't just sell products. Forinstance the Label store is like a mini website. You can sell and manage anunlimited amount of products, you have music players, a discography, acontact form, separate pages for each of your bands, full integration withthe auction section, and News that can be followed by any user on LP. Thisis more than any store on the internet offers. It's more than any storecould possibly offer considering we have an auction section. The price for thisstore? $100 for a year. That's less than half the price of our directcompetitions best plan and we offer a million more features. Why did we dothis? Cause I know what it's like to try and start a small label. You makeno money and you work your ass off. Why should LP clear a billion percentprofit off the people we want to succeed? For us it makes no sense to dothat. I want to see labels put out more releases. I want these releases tocome out faster and better. To do this, labels need money. We also have aDistro/Merch account for 75 a year, and a Band account for 25 a year. Bothof which have unlimited product selling and managing. Am I bragging? Fuckyeah I'm bragging. And I think I have a right to. Even more so for mybrother Tom who built the site. I pump out the ideas, he yells at me a lot,changes them a little, and goes to work. I owe him big time.What's in store for LP's future? More innovative ideas for sure. I wantto tweak the way the Hoverboard works. I think it has the potential of beingsomething really fun. Right now though it's hard for people to understandcause of how different it is. Passive bumping is something we're going totry. Meaning a click through will bump it to the top. We also have some morereally cool store ideas. Maybe a way to customize the look of your store.We also have a premium account in the works. This is going to answer a lotof questions people have about certain unfinished ideas and sections.Basically, we're not resting any time soon. In fact, now that we've releasedstores, and people are starting to take notice, we'll have other sitesgunning for us. So we're going to need to step it up. I'm down with that.Competition is great. It pushes businesses to give the customer the bestpossible product at the cheapest possible rate.If you're interested in checking one of these stores out, head over to ourStore Directory. Inside you'll find a list of stores, and also a link to thestore details page where you can read a full list of features.

Mar 9, 2010

HUGE piece to the Exit/Wreck-age puzzle. Yuppicide - Fear Love on Clear Green. Grabbed this off of the german ebay site for way too much money. It was worth it though.

I already had the clear light brown version of this. Well it suppose to be clear brown, but in each of these three pictures the same record looks completely different.

Now the list I have from Wreck-age says 550 on multi color, no specifics. I only know of these 2 colors, and of course black. But really I have no idea what else is out there. If anyone has any other colors than these two let me know.

Mar 6, 2010

A couple months back I went to the Ink and Lead - Sister Kisser split 12 release show. The opening band Kickstarts was from Valley Stream and peaked my interest when I heard they had members of Kill Your Idols and The Causalities. One thing I really love about these guys is they don't seem to give a shit. Let me explain. When I saw these guys live they killed it. They were loud and fast and super energetic. They did like 4 songs and I was totally into it. Then out of no where some dude shows up with a guitar case, rips the thing open, wings the case like a bottle cap across the stage, and goes and plugs in. WHAT!? This is the other guitarist?! HA no way! Turns out the guy was stuck in traffic and didn't make it in time. They played as a 3 piece and I tell ya, I didn't even realize they were missing anything. They're punk, and who gives a shit, and I'm down with that. The singer is Rick, bass player for The Causalities. A band that I have serious respect for. Those guys have been really incredible, for a really long time.

So after I saw them, I did a little research and found out they had a 4 song 12" on KOI Records. 4 different colors. Pretty limited quantities. So I ordered a bunch.

If you like the punk hardcore mix, I'd check them out. They have a preview of their 4 song 12 on their myspace page

Mar 4, 2010

Recently I added to my Dead Broke Records collection by picking up the Landlord S/T Test Press. This is a weird grunge punk indie whatever type band. I think I'm pretty down with their sound. It's different and out there and I've really been looking for different now a days.

This set is almost complete. From what I hear there's a very rare yellow starburst type variant floating around. Once I can find it, I think I'll call it quits on the Landlord 7.

Also I need to do a big update on my current DBR collection. It's real solid right now. I'm missing maybe 2 test presses. And probably 5 or 6 color variants. Should be a pretty sick picture.

Mar 1, 2010

The other day someone posted a thread on Vinyl Collective about H2O and what was involved in collecting everything they put out on vinyl. I was about to leave to go get some lunch with Tom, but I thought it would cool to put everything I have together real quick, snap a picture, and post it. I also thought it would be a great excuse to get a picture for a blog post.

So here it is. My current H2O Collection. I think it's the best out there, although I'm not totally sure.

What I know for sure I'm missing:

Everready on Blue, and Pink. Demo on Clear and Purple. Nothing to Prove on Blue and White. White is easy, and Blue I would have had, but ebay froze when my brother tried to bid on it for me. Although he could have been sleeping and just lied. Then some misc on black and Japan presses that I'm not worried about at all. It's really just the colored ones that have me slightly perplexed. Especially the Pink Everready which I didn't know existed until someone with a pretty nice collection of his own, replied to that VC thread.